Archaeology 09-10

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Welcome to the Archaeology job wiki for 2009-1010. Please add any information as you find it, simply edit the page and add your info under the job in question. You don't need an account to edit, just press the "Edit" button at the top of the page. This works best when more people use the wiki, so pass along the link to other people who would be interested.

Tried to re-organize to make this easier to navigate- t-t and non t-t jobs now divided into still open/status unknown and closed searches-- non-t-t jobs put in alphabetical order. Some of the ones with rejection letters may be closed, but since rejection letters can come at various times in the process and they don't say that offers were made or accepted I left them for now- if people have more info, please move things into the closed searches section!*

Lehman College - Prehistoric Central or South America, complex societies

-Deadline Nov 30

-acknowledgement of application (email) 12/15

- received an email today (Jan 12) to inform me that the CUNYfirst online application system has been malfunctioning, so they wanted me to re-send my cover letter and sample publication; so this search is still alive (in principle).

Re-requesting letters of ref from those they already confirmed had sent them (Jan 19)- seems this search is a bit disorganized

-Inside hire?

I'll tell you in September. Their Visiting Professor seems like an excellent candidate.

Campus interview scheduled (maybe this was a SC update, but IP address on update came from Lehman's campus).

- Received request for additional materials, may be automatically sent to all applicants (Oct 30)

Yeah, it's automatic. Everyone I know got the request for 5 more essays.

- Any word on this position?

Had an on campus interview early December. Found out late December did not get the position and they're continuing their search. FYI teaching load is 4/4. (x2) So... does this mean they're going to create a new short list? Try again next year? Any idea?

No idea. When I interviewed I was told that they don't discount anyone from the pool of candidates and I also found out that an MVAC employee applied for this position as well.

I think the Adelphi University deadline has passed - although anyone interested should inquire. I sent in an application and a query and they answered a couple weeks later that they were beginning the selection process.

- they have a short list, campus interviews scheduled for Jan/Feb. 12/2 (x2)

Rejection letter received 12/8

Received letter via mail dated 12/15 stating that the selection process is taking longer than anticipated and asking if candidate is still interested (x4)

-Did anyone apply for this and not hear something either way? 1/20

-Short list compiled and on-campus interviews began in early Feb. - 2/11

- they have a short list - don't know if they've notified all the candidates yet (I'm not one of them) 1/13

- To the above poster, how did you hear about this? Rejection letter or email? Did you inquire? (comment added 1/14)

- Told by search committee member I wasn't on the short list, but not a formal rejection letter yet

- 1/19: Rejection letter received (x3)

I too heard through the grapevine (not from the committee) that they have a short list and I am not on it, but as of 2/1 I have not received a rejection letter. I know of others who have already received rejection letters (in late January).

There is a short list of four candidates with interviews being held in February. At the same time as an Assyriology search in a small department. Its gonna be nuts. Two talks a week.

- Hmmm, any news on this search? The original announcement expressed a desire to conclude before Dec 2009 * Nope, same boat here - got confirmation of submission and not a peep since then.I too was told over email from the Huelsbeck that this search was on fast-track to be completed before the Christmas break. But no further word at all. I have suspected this is an inside hire all along, but in that case I would expect the process to be moving much more quickly

Rejection / Campus Interviews Completed Email (Dec 22) x3

- Just got my rejection email on 11 Jan (and no contact at all prior to that). Classy. (x3)

- This position was offered last year but pulled due to budgetary problems

-any word on this?

-rejection letter Dec. 28
-Position filled

University of North Carolina Greensboro - Archaeology or physical anthro, particularly interested in one or more of the following research foci: continuity and change in the face of contact, the development of complex systems, and/or the origins and maintenance of inequality, paleoanthropology, human biology, and/or human skeletal biology.

-Deadline Nov 15, but today (Nov 10) it is not on the anthro dept web page or the university employment page. Anyone know if it's been pulled? It's still advertised on AAA.

-Any word on this job?? (1/14) The Physical Anthropology job wiki says that the SC is meeting the week of January 18 to review applications.

-contacted for phone interview 1/19 (x2)

-phone interviews for 8 candidates, of which they're going to select 4 for on campus interviews (for arch position, which I think is separate from the phys anthro one)

- does anybody know if the phone interviews have been completed?

-they have shortlists for both of these jobs

3/2: any news at all? anybody for on campus interviews?

3/2: chair said that they were waiting on HR approval for archaeology position. Can anybody confirm? How many for phone interviews?
3/19 letter sent stating that they selected Donna Nash for the position. (wow-- never heard of the rejection letter saying who was hired before!)

- Starting at $37,800.00 (is this just exploiting a bad job market? it is insulting to expect a qualified Ph.D. for this salary - especially at a major research university.) (Agreed-- this is only slightly above a postdoc salary.) It's also about $200 less than the average yearly salary for an assistant store manager at Wal-Mart. (And the best part is that there are recent grads from last year so desperate for a job ANY JOB PLEASE A JOB PLEASE that they'd do it for less. Yikes)(Yikes indeed)

- on the Madison page this lists as $57,800 - that earlier number is probably a typo

-It's not a typo. If you go to http://www.ohr.wisc.edu/polproced/UTG/SalRng.html and scroll down to "Faculty Salary Minima" you will see that an assistant professor is guaranteed to make $37,800 on a 9-month basis and $46,200 on a 12-month. Now whether this low range is common is another story.

- What's with the strong interest in archaeometry? I didn't think the person getting replaced had any interest in it. Combined with the kitchen-sink application, it makes me think that there is an inside candidate...

-wouldn't they not bother to ask for anything if they were just going through the motions?

-maybe the university requires all of the extra stuff. Seems like most of the Wisconsin schools I've applied to require extra stuff.

-I don't think it's required, at least not across the entire university. I've seen a number of ads from other departments with no mention of syllabi and teaching evaluations.

-Talking to people, it sounds like they are trying to replace two faculty positions with this one, hence the New World/archaeometry combo.

- Wisconsin's semester doesn't start until the 19th. I doubt anything will happen for at least one more week.

-There is a rumor that there is an insider grad student who fits the job description to a T. It doesn't mean that the person will get the job, but it's probaably helpful to know.

- It would be very unusual for a department, especially at a place like Madison, to hire one of their own recent graduate students. Here, which is much like Madison, our grad students have been told not to even bother applying for hires in our department. Departments want to bring in new people to broader their experiences and connections, not narrow them by internally hiring a grad student. It also makes sense that, given they are trying to replace a speciality they are losing, there would be one or more grad students with those interests too.

-It's uncommon, but I've seen it happen when a student is the department's superstar and the supervisor retires.

- Campus interview scheduled for mid February! - Yes, had phone interview last week. They said they were phone interviewing 10 candidates and choosing a short list of 3 for campus interviews.

- To the above poster, did you have a phone interview?

- I hate to say it, but it's sounding more and more like an inside job. Several of the current faculty are in fact alums of the graduate program so it's apparently not unusual.

- Possibly -- two faculty members are UWM alumni, or perhaps they asked for so much material up front because they prefer to jump straight to a short list.

-Request for letters, may be automatically sent to all applicant (Letters were required up front, so they probably contacted all applicants who didn't include them?); Ad didn't say anything about letters up front; online application automatically generates emails to referees

-11/28 AAA interview requested (is it weird that I got this a week after the above person was asked for an interview?)

- It might not mean anything, but maybe it could mean that they had a few top candidates who they wanted to give more flexibility to, scheduling-wise, and once they were sorted out they contacted the rest of the list?

- 1/29: campus invite

-- 3/16 recieved e-mail stating that they had filled the position

College of Wooster - One year Visiting Assistant Professor

-Rejection letter (position has been filled) 3/15

General Discussion, Rumors, and Speculation

The latest issue of the Smithsonian Anthropology newsletter indicates that they are working to fill two curator positions including one in Indigenous North America. The SI Human Resources page doesn't have any info on this. It may be something for an archaeology PhD, but does anybody have info? Is the search already concluded? Not an open search? (September 22)

- informed that I made it past the first round of screening on this on (11/4)
-rejection email (12/16)

Kudos to whoever put the schools in alphabetical order- makes browsing the page much easier.

- Anyone else disgusted with the standard operating procedures of these search committees this year? Requiring large amounts of materials, including letters of rec and transcripts (! really?) before they've even bothered to get to a medium list. It's rampant this year, probably as a lazy tactic that allows them to throw a bunch of applicants in the waste basket. Wisconsin is the worst example of this... Writing samples, teaching evaluations,sample syllabi, AND letters of recommendation before they've bothered to even get to a medium list? Really not the right way to do things. No wonder Jason Yaeger left.

-Maybe he was just cold in WI?
-I'm pretty sure he left for family reasons.

-- As someone new to the academic job market, I am wondering about these year-long Visiting Professorships (the only position I am still in the running for, possibly b/c I am still ABD...). Is it worth it? I'd love to hear people's thoughts or experiences with this.

--These days the easiest way to get a permanent job seems to be to take a one year first. If you are lucky the job will open up into a tenure-track the next year and you will get hired. So often, these jobs are inside hires of people who took a one year.

Which ones? They've just about all moved on to the first round of campus invites, explicit or not.

Any successful spousal hire stories out there? In a down market with hiring and raise freezes it seems like a long shot to get 2 jobs for 1.

-I think it's a long shot. My partner has a TT job, and the institution is supposedly committed to spousal/partner hires...except they seem more interested in bringing in big names who cost a lot of money. They're better off financially than many universities, and they want to pay for brand recognition. They are not terribly interested in junior scholars. I've been told I must work my ass off to provide 'ammo' for them to request a line...all with no pay. So, publish like mad to even get a shot at a TT. A pretty raw deal. So much for trying to get gigs at the same place. I'm not too optimistic. Perhaps someone else can offer a more positive experience?

(Editorial note (someone can move this down to gen. discussion if they wish): What's up with people not posting things until after the due date? I get that we all should be searching the job sites, and this one was on AAA so people have no excuse for not seeing it, but on other anthro wikis people have found jobs listed in some really obscure places but don't post them until after the deadline, and the same happens on the Hum/Soc Sci Postdoc page. For all the collegiality among those on these boards, this practice seems rather un-collegial.
) (As the person who posted the Alaska job [this message is in response to the prior that was posted next to my post of the Fairbanks job and within a few days after it was entered], I can tell you I meant nothing sinister in the timing, I was glancing at the wiki to see if anything was going on in the last few jobs I'd applied for. And, since I'd just finished the Alaska job, it was on my mind and so I noticed its absence and posted it. I would like to point out, though, that we are all getting beaten up enough in the job market it is absolutely unnecessary to start throwing around accusations of being uncollegial, especially in a case of a job that was widely posted several weeks, and that the critic himself/herself must have seen posted on AAA and elsewhere and not chosen to add to the wiki before the due date either. I sincerely doubt that anyone is relying only on the wiki for their job announcements, and there have been, indeed, several jobs posted on AAA, Chronicle and other popular sites that have never made their way to the wiki because we are all getting tired, burned out, and stressed, and at least for some of us it's hard enough to summon the energy and enthusiasm required for applying, or even considering applying, let alone constantly update the wiki as we did so long ago in the fall. And now I've said my say and will not continue this conversation, because this is really not the appropriate place for it. ) )